By Afrah Batool
There can hardly be a greater honour for the teaching profession than the fact that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) described his mission in terms of teaching. In the Islamic tradition, a teacher is not merely someone who delivers a syllabus. A teacher is a guide, mentor and builder of human character. The teacher opens doors to knowledge and, sometimes, to possibilities a student had never imagined.
This is why World Teachers’ Day, observed on October 5, should be more than a ceremonial occasion marked by flowers, cards, speeches and social media messages. Its real purpose is to remind societies that the future of education depends on the people who stand at the centre of every classroom.
The theme of World Teachers’ Day 2026 — “Standing with teachers: 60 years of protecting the profession, advancing its status and shaping our futures” — is particularly relevant. It marks six decades since the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers and draws attention to professional dignity, working conditions, rights and the contribution teachers make to shaping the future.
The phrase “standing with teachers” deserves closer examination. It is easy to praise teachers. It is considerably harder to create the conditions in which they can perform their responsibilities effectively.
The familiar verse says:
Rəhbər bhi yeh, hamdam bhi yeh, gham-khwar hamare,
Ustad yeh qaumon ke hain me’mar hamare.
The teacher is a guide, companion and well-wisher — an architect of nations.
The metaphor is more than poetic. Nations are ultimately built by people, and people are shaped long before they enter professions, institutions or public life. Behind almost every successful scientist, doctor, engineer, writer, administrator or entrepreneur stands a teacher who encouraged, corrected or inspired that individual.
The story associated with Nobel laureate Abdus Salam and the encouragement he received from one of his teachers illustrates the extraordinary influence a teacher can have. Sometimes it takes only a small gesture — a word of appreciation, a book, a scholarship or a moment of encouragement — to convince a child that his or her abilities deserve to be taken seriously.
This is the invisible contribution of teachers. They do not merely transmit information. They cultivate confidence, discipline, curiosity, imagination and the courage to question.
Pakistan, however, continues to struggle with a contradiction. Teachers are routinely described as “nation builders”, yet many are expected to perform this enormous responsibility under difficult conditions. Low remuneration in parts of the education sector, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate facilities, administrative pressures, limited career progression and insufficient professional development continue to affect the profession.
If Pakistan wants a modern education system, it must first create a modern teaching profession.
That means treating teaching as a serious professional career rather than a fallback occupation. Talented young people should see teaching as a field offering dignity, professional growth, financial security and intellectual fulfilment. The best graduates should not be discouraged from entering classrooms because other professions offer better prospects.
Salary is not everything, but it matters. A society cannot reasonably expect teachers to devote themselves to educating future generations while disregarding their legitimate economic needs. Countries that have developed strong education systems have generally recognised that teacher compensation, training, career progression and professional respect are interconnected.
Pakistan’s experience with the tenure-track system in higher education demonstrated the importance of creating incentives for highly qualified people to enter academia. A similar seriousness is required at school level. If talented teachers are attracted to schools and provided with continuous training, the quality of education will inevitably improve.
The pandemic offered a powerful demonstration of teachers’ importance. When schools closed during Covid-19, education moved suddenly towards digital platforms and remote learning. Teachers had to acquire new skills, often with limited resources. Many faced students who had poor internet access or no suitable devices. Yet they continued to find ways to keep learning alive.
That experience explains why UNESCO’s recent World Teachers’ Day themes have repeatedly placed teachers at the heart of educational transformation. The 2021 theme highlighted teachers as central to education recovery, while the 2022 theme declared that the transformation of education begins with teachers. The subsequent international focus on teacher shortages reinforced the same message: educational reform is impossible without enough capable and motivated teachers.
The challenge is not simply the number of teachers. It is their quality, preparation and professional environment.
The teacher of today must understand much more than the subject being taught. Students live in an information-saturated world. Artificial intelligence, social media and digital platforms have changed the way young people acquire knowledge. Teachers must therefore understand technology, psychology, critical thinking and new pedagogical methods.
But technology cannot replace the human teacher.
A search engine can provide information. Artificial intelligence can explain a concept. A digital platform can deliver a lecture. But a machine cannot always recognise the student who has stopped believing in himself, the child afraid to ask a question or the young person who needs encouragement more than another piece of information.
The teacher’s role is therefore not disappearing; it is becoming more complex.
Pakistan’s language policy presents another challenge. For decades, the country has moved between Urdu and English without developing a sufficiently coherent educational strategy. Students can sometimes spend more effort understanding the language of a textbook than understanding its ideas. Many successful countries have demonstrated that strong education in a national language can coexist with proficiency in international languages.
The answer lies not in choosing one language for ideological reasons but in developing a policy that places comprehension and learning at its centre.
Whatever language is used, however, reform will remain incomplete without teachers capable of implementing it.
Teachers must also be given a greater voice in policymaking. Too often, educational reforms are designed in offices and handed down to classrooms. Yet teachers are the people who know what happens when a policy meets a real child, a real classroom and real social circumstances.
An effective teacher must be knowledgeable, punctual, patient, fair and willing to learn. He or she should understand students’ psychology, adapt teaching methods to different abilities, acknowledge mistakes and remain intellectually engaged with new developments.
But teachers are human beings too.
Society cannot demand endless sacrifice while ignoring their legitimate needs. Professional expectations are necessary; institutional neglect is not.
The contrast with Western societies is sometimes exaggerated, but there is a lesson in the institutional respect accorded to teachers in many successful education systems. Respect is expressed not merely through words but through salaries, training, career structures, working conditions and professional autonomy.
That is what “standing with teachers” should mean.
It means supporting teachers when budgets are prepared, when curricula are changed and when new technologies are introduced. It means consulting them before educational policies are announced. It means understanding that teacher welfare is not an expenditure competing with education; it is an investment in education itself.
The Islamic intellectual tradition offers an even deeper understanding of the profession. Knowledge is regarded as a virtue, and those who transmit it carry a special responsibility. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught through knowledge, compassion, example and character. Education was not simply the transfer of information; it was the transformation of the individual.
That principle remains relevant.
Students may forget a formula, a date or a chapter from a textbook. They are far less likely to forget a teacher who made them believe they were capable of something greater.
This is why October 5 should be a day of reflection as much as celebration. Pakistan does not need another declaration that teachers are the builders of the nation. It needs policies that make the declaration credible.
Better teacher education, competitive remuneration, continuous professional development, reasonable workloads, modern classrooms and meaningful career opportunities are not luxuries. They are essential components of a functioning education system.
Ultimately, the way a society treats its teachers reveals how seriously it takes its own future.
We can salute teachers with flowers and speeches on October 5. But the real test begins on October 6.
Can we give teachers the dignity we praise them for possessing? Can we provide them with the resources we expect them to use? Can we listen to their voices when we redesign education?
If we can, then World Teachers’ Day will become more than an annual ritual.
For a teacher does not merely prepare a child for an examination.
A teacher prepares a child for life — and, through that child, prepares a nation for its future.